Milestone for Telstra as users flock to 5G

Telstra is about to exceed 100,000 5G connected devices in Australia — surpassing the US — as the technology continues to gain traction.

Customers check out 5G phones at the Samsung booth at the CES tech show in Las Vegas. Picture: AP

Telstra is about to exceed 100,000 5G connected devices in Australia — surpassing the US — as the technology continues to gain traction.

Telstra’s group executive for consumer and small business, ­Michael Ackland, told The Australian at the CES gadget show in Las Vegas that Australian consumers had lapped up the faster speeds available through 5G, which launched in the middle of 2018.

“We’re very happy with the momentum we’re seeing in 5G so far,” Mr Ackland said.

“Since July, a quarter of our Android phones sold have been 5G phones.

“We have seen several new 5G phones and laptops launched at CES, many of which are in the mid-market.

“We will have over 800 5G sites live around the country, part of the 26 cities that we’ve launched in so far.”

Apple is expected to release its 5G-enabled iPhone this year, but Telstra is already offering 5G devices from Samsung, Oppo and LG.

Analysts suggest the US has yet to hit the 100,000 device milestone.

According to Mr Ackland, Telstra will be rolling out 5G sites in an additional unnamed nine cities in the next sixth months, to bring the company to a total of 35 5G-enabled cities.

He points to research from Telsyte that shows 5G adoption is set to be faster than previous generations, with 15 million handset services expected to be in operation by the end of June 2023, and that one in four mobile users are willing to pay more for 5G.

The research showed Australian mobile services market grew by about half a million new services in the six months to December 2018, reaching 35.4 million, and Telstra and mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) were the top two for services for net growth.

Mr Ackland also announced that Telstra was working on creating a gaming-optimised broadband product to capitalise on the $7bn local gaming industry.

“We think it offers a real point of difference for customers that are thinking about purchasing a gaming router or gaming VPNs today in a way that’s really simple and integrated into our Smart Modem,” he said.

“Over time we think there are some cool concepts that could incorporate the work we’re doing on low-latency mobile connections and give gamers the choice of network to get the best gaming outcome.

“We have a great set of products that have solved many major problems already. We’ll have some big news to announce this year.”

The company also used its CES presentation to launch the Tough Max 3, an 180g smartphone that it says is ideal for tradies and farmers. “The device is tough, robust and sealed to handle impacts and exposure to water,” Mr Ackland said.

“It’s got fingerprint sensor and facial recognition to make the device convenient and accessible, which is handy for those who work with gloves and can’t use fingerprint biometrics.”

David Swan travelled to Las Vegas as a guest of Uber.